産業革命期フランス・アルザス地方における児童労働問題 : 一八四一年児童労働法と企業家
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概要
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The Child Labour Law of 1841 is the first case of state intervention found in nineteenth-century French economic liberalism. However, its special significance lies in the fact that the impetus for the law came from a movement formed by industrialists. The object of this ARTICLE is to examine the meaning of the law for Alsatian industrialists, who took a leading role in the movement. First of all, a clear difference concerning the justification for state intervention on this issue can be observed between the industrialists who argued that legislation was necessary, and those in parliament who actually got the law passed. The industrialists, who belonged to the paternalistic Societe Industrielle de Mulhouse, intended to establish a new social order based on industrialization. For them, the 1841 law represented a partial transfer of company welfare policy to the state and a modification of the laissez-faire system of free competition. On the other hand, the main advocates of the law in parliament were influenced by Social Catholicism and sought to restore traditional rural society. They saw the law as a social guarantee which would protect child workers from all sorts of harm. From the viewpoint of the industrialists, the significance of the 1841 law can be summarized as follows: the regulation of factory labour meant the revival of the working-class family and ensured a good supply of adult workers in the future. Controls on child labour were also expected to bring about uniform conditions in production activities and guarantee reasonable profits. A peculiarity of the 1841 law therefore lies in the fact that a social policy intended to stabilize the formation of the labour force was linked to an interventionalist economic policy intended to establish a just system of competition according to the principles of economic liberalism.
- 社会経済史学会の論文
- 1999-01-25